Boeing B-29 Superfortress “Enola Gay” (Spring 2016)

This particular one B-29,Enola Gay, dropped the Little Boy atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 8, 1945. Another restored B-29 which is almost as famous, B-29 Bockscar, dropped the Fat Man atomic bomb on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. You can see her at the National Museum of the USAF in Dayton, Ohio or read my other post about her.

Boeing B-29 Superfortress “Enola Gay”

The design of this beautiful bomber revolutionized the way we look not only at the military planes but the entire aviation. B-29 was the most complicated flying machine that man build in its time. It surpassed all the predecessors in the weight of ordinance it could carry – almost 20,000 pounds. The range of the Superfortress was also amazing – it was over 3000 miles.

There were almost 4,000 various variants of B-29 produced and the bomber saw action during World War II and Korean War. The Soviet Union really like the design and decided to reverse engineer it and Tupolev Tu-4 was the name of the Soviet copy.